“…we need to be careful and discerning. There are groups of people who enjoy displays of the supernatural that are not true works of the Holy Spirit but productions of their desire to ‘see more’ and ‘hear more’ and reflect a susceptibility to power of suggestion from others. A few questions are necessary.” - Randy Alcorn
As much as it might seem to stretch the barriers of time, I was taught to preach by a man who sat under the ministry of none other than Dr. Henry (Harry) Allan Ironside—the so-called “archbishop of fundamentalism.”
In fact, Dr. Ironside is my spiritual and theological grandfather on at least two different counts.
First, he was indeed the pastor of my practical theology professor in seminary—Dr. Ralph Turk, one of my own mentors. Dr. Turk spent his earliest years in The Moody Church, where Ironside served as pastor from 1930 to 1948.
Read Part 1.
Although Gideon is certainly a man driven by his anxieties when we first meet him in Judges 6, the magnificent accomplishments which God worked through him were definitely done on the basis of faith.
Indeed, this man of fear became a man of faith—and it was that faith that drove one of the greatest victories in all of Biblical history.
When we first encounter Gideon, the fifth of the 12 leaders of Israel described in the book called Judges, he is definitely a man who is overwhelmed, even dominated, by fear.
Gideon lived during that long stretch of time—more than three centuries—between the days of Joshua, and the launch of the monarchy, which is captured for us in the shadowy book of Judges.
Now, Gideon’s fears were not unfounded. Over the course of seven straight years, the Midianites, Amalekites and other Easterners had swept through Israel at harvest time and taken every shred of their crops, along with their animals, leaving the people of Israel completely desolate.
“Corrie Ten Boom wrote, ‘When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.’” - Randy Alcorn
“If a Christian told me he had never dealt with doubt, I wouldn’t believe him. Or at least I would respectfully conclude he was in denial, or lacked self-awareness, or wasn’t a serious-thinking person.” - Desiring God
“March 15, 44 BC…Roman senators assassinated Julius Caesar. Nearly 77 years later… Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. We can have justified belief in both events by following four practices historians use to discover the truth about the past.” - TGC
“Due to the generosity of a friend of the seminary, we now have ten copies of Dr. McFadden’s book that we’re going to give away to the first ten people who send their names and addresses to [email protected].” - DBTS Blog
“someone… whose faith is under fire from great trials or a particular attack from the tempter. How would you minister to this person? Paul gives us a model in his letter to the church in Thessalonica.” - Colin Smith
“Over 80% of churchgoers predict a promising future for their churches. Is this figure what you would expect? Until I saw the research, I would not have guessed optimism was so high among churchgoers.” - Sam Rainer
